The new buds don't feel the coldness of early spring, and when they peek out in February, they still smell the east wind.

The new snow has just melted, and the weeping willows along the road outside Zongyuan City have sprouted buds one after another. The layers of tender green willows are covered with small lanterns of different shapes, and some brightly colored five-color paper is stuck in the gaps.

The east wind blew by, and the willow branches swayed, creating colorful colors.

At dusk, a two-horse carriage that had been galloping for several days stopped outside Zongyuan City. A girl in white, about eleven or twelve years old, jumped out of the car first, followed by a handsome man with a girl in his arms.

A silhouette of a long-haired man also got out of the car.

Liu Xiaolu looked at the tall city wall in front of him, his eyes filled with wonder.

The gate of Zongyuan City is more than two or three times wider than that of Xiangshan City. A moat more than three to four feet wide flows slowly around the tall city wall.

There was an endless stream of pedestrians coming and going at the city gate. Two columns of soldiers in silver armor lined up on both sides of the city gate. From time to time they stepped forward to stop a few people entering the city. After careful inspection, they were allowed in.

Go to the city.

"Master, this city is so big and beautiful. Is the family's ancestral home here?"

After riding in the carriage for three or four days, the girl finally got off the carriage with great difficulty. The girl couldn't help but cheered.

The long-haired man behind him chuckled, shook his head, and said, "The family's ancestral land is not in this city, but more than ten miles east of the city."

Hearing this, Liu Xiaolu turned his head and asked doubtfully, "Then why don't we just go back to the family? What are we doing here?"

"Purchase some things in the city, and then find a place to put Xiaolin in place. We will return to our ancestral home early tomorrow morning. Let's go to the city first." After Hu Yizhi finished speaking, he walked towards the city gate.

That's right, Xiaolin couldn't live in the Hu family's ancestral land, but he forgot about it.

Liu Xiaolu looked up and saw that his master had already walked away, so he hurriedly followed him.

The two of them walked to the city gate, but were stopped by the city gate guard. A burly soldier in silver armor said in a low voice, "What's wrong with the man you are holding? Could it be that he is infected with the epidemic?"

Hu Yizhi frowned and said, "It was only because my apprentice was naughty and encountered a wild beast in the mountains that he was injured and fell into coma. It was not an epidemic."

Unexpectedly, when the guard heard this, he raised his eyebrows and shouted, "I think it's the epidemic, and the epidemic is not allowed to enter the city!"

When Liu Xiaolu saw this, he took the first step to argue with the guard, but was stopped by Hu Yizhi.

"Brother the guard is joking, please take a closer look."

Hu Yizhi flicked his sleeves and quietly stuffed a silver ingot into the guard's hand.

"Well, let me take a look, it doesn't seem to be true. Come on, let's go in." The guard weighed the silver ingots in his hands, and then stepped aside with satisfaction, no longer paying attention to them.

Before Liu Xiaolu could say anything else, Hu Yizhi took her arm and walked quickly into the city.

"Master, that guard is just a fifth-level mortal. He is clearly deliberately making things difficult. Why do you still give him money?" Liu Xiaolu said dissatisfied.

Hu Yizhi was not annoyed at all, he just stretched out his hand to rub the top of the girl's black hair and explained in a warm voice, "You are right, the guard is indeed a mortal, but the lord of Zong Yuancheng is a foundation-building monk with strong magic power.

Moreover, there are several family forces of different sizes in Zongyuan City. Now that we have not officially returned to the family, and Xiaolin is seriously injured, it is better not to provoke them than to do more."

Liu Xiaolu was stunned when he heard this, and asked curiously, "What? This sect Yuancheng City Lord is actually a foundation-building monk? Aren't the immortal cultivators all practicing in the deep mountains and old forests, how come they still appear in this secular world?"

Hu Yizhi shook his head and chuckled, "Idiot, the ancestral land of the mountain sect of the immortal cultivating forces is often located on the inaccessible spiritual veins, but it does not mean that there are no spiritual veins in the world. It just means that for tens of thousands of years, with the development of generations of monks,

Since then, most of the spiritual veins in the secular world have been exhausted, so today's immortal cultivators have moved their ancestral sites to more remote mountains and forests in order to cultivate their spiritual veins."

"Master means that there is a spiritual vein in Zongyuan City?" Liu Xiaolu said in surprise.

"Exactly." Hu Yizhi nodded.

"Doesn't that mean that practicing in Zongyuan City will be much faster than practicing outside? In that case, why not send all the clan members to Zongyuan City." Liu Xiaolu asked with some confusion.

Hu Yizhi pondered for a while and explained, "That's not the case. The spiritual vein in Zongyuan City is only a small spiritual vein, which is not enough for so many monks to practice at the same time. Many years ago, the old city lord teamed up with several foundation-building monks to help

Several restrictions have been imposed on the spiritual veins in the city, and the spiritual energy in the spiritual veins is isolated by the restrictions. Only in places connected to the forbidden array can the spiritual energy be absorbed through the formation."

Liu Xiaolu nodded thoughtfully and asked again, "But in this case, wouldn't only the city lord and his family be able to enjoy this spiritual vein? Do the other families in the city have no objections?"

"Most of the spiritual veins are indeed controlled in the city lord's palace, but each family will also allocate some fixed quotas. Although there are not many, most of the monks in each family stay in their respective family ancestral lands and are stationed in the clan.

There are not many monks in Yuancheng, so it is quite sufficient."

"I see, but why do those cultivating families send their monks to Zongyuan City? Isn't it good to practice peacefully in the ancestral land?"

Seeing the girl asking questions one after another like a barrage of questions, Hu Yizhi shook his head helplessly, but still answered patiently, "Zongyuan City was a small city in the Liu Kingdom's Immortal Realm many years ago. It was later added to the city.

The number of forces gradually increased, and the scale gradually increased. Under the organization of a late-stage foundation-building monk who had the highest cultivation level among the forces at that time, the monks built the Zongyuan City on top of the original city.

."

"Then, the monk who proposed building the city became the city lord?"

"That's right."

"There are so many mortals in the city..."

"Most of these mortals are descendants of the monks in the city. Of course, there are also some ordinary servants from other places."

Hearing this, Liu Xiaolu was shocked and said, "My dear, does that mean that the guy guarding the door just now might be a distant relative of the city lord?"

Hu Yizhi couldn't help but raised his head and said, "It is possible, but the status gap between mortals and monks in the world of immortality is huge. Most monks marry several concubines and often have many children, so the city lords in the foundation period will not ask.

It’s a distant relative that I can’t hit with my 18-year-old…”

The two walked and talked all the way, and soon came to the door of an inn.

The inn was quite elegantly decorated, with all the antique nanmu furniture in sight. As soon as they entered the door, they were greeted by a young man in blue.

"Hey, guest officials, how many of you want to stay in the hotel?"

Hu Yizhi tilted his head slightly and said, "Two upper rooms."

"Okay, two bedrooms~"
Chapter completed!